Since its inception 13 years ago, Virginia Festival of the Book has brought to Charlottesville many high-profile writers. This year, they add another to their prestigious list. While she may not be a high-profile writer you recognize, she is quite popular among the kids.
Sonia Manzano, who many know as Maria on "Sesame Street," will share her books, A Box Full of Kittens and No Dogs Allowed, Sat. Mar 24 at 12 p.m.
Last week, tableau was able to talk with Manzano about her books, the Festival and Sesame Street.
tableau: What inspired you to begin writing books, specifically children's books?
Manzano: After writing for Sesame Street for so long, I wanted to write something that didn't have a cognitive skill attached to it, you know. When you write for Sesame Street everything has to be approved and everything has to have a lesson in it and that's the mission of the show: to teach good television. So I had to write according to what their curriculum was. And I wanted the opportunity to write something that was totally whimsical and fantasy and something that didn't have a perfect curriculum attached to it.
tableau: In both writing and acting you've chosen children as your audience. In the context of literature, why children as your audience?
Manzano: Writing for children was a natural transition from performing for children. I remember my childhood very well. I thought it would be interesting to tap into those experiences.
tableau: What is your writing process like?
Manzano: Well, usually I write about little things that happened to me as a kid, so they're like little memoirs, I like to think of them. And No Dogs Allowed is based on a true story about when my parents, you know, go through all this trouble to take us to the state park in the summer. And my second book, A Box Full of Kittens, is about when my aunt was expecting a baby. So everything that I write for kids is based on some real experience that I had as a kid.
tableau: What do you think is the most important aspect of literature, and how does this relate to the genre of children's books?
Manzano: Well, I think that literature gives kids an opportunity to put themselves in somebody else's shoes and sort of live life how somebody else is living it. I think it's a wonderful way to escape, and I think that when you read about other people's lives it helps you reflect on your own.
tableau: Saying that, how important do you think literature is today in a world inundated with visual media?
Manzano: Oh, I think it's tremendously important. There's something that's wonderful that happens between your imagination and a writer's imagination that you can't really qualify. You can't really make a picture of it, it's a private experience between you and the writer and that can't be duplicated visually.
tableau: Is this part of the reason why you've chosen to participate in Virginia Festival of the Book?
Manzano: Yes. My first festival was the National Festival in Washington D.C., and I just think book festivals are the most fun and I love hearing other authors talk about their projects and I love asking them questions about how they came to write whatever they came to write. I just think it's a wonderful fun thing to do.
tableau: Do you think in the future that you could, or would, write an adult fiction or non-fiction text?
Manzano: I think so. I'm writing an adult non-fiction, I'm writing my memoir now. And, I just finished it. I like to write something and sort of let it simmer for a while and see where it takes me next.
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